Light leakage compensating unit image sensors, image sensor arrays including the unit image sensors, and methods for compensating for light leakage of the image sensor arrays
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsKyung-ho Lee, Jung-chak Ahn, Sang-joo Lee, Young-hwan Park, Dong-yoon Jang, Young-heub Jang
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Abstract
A light leakage compensating unit image sensor in a back side illumination method includes a photodiode and a storage diode, in which light input to a back side of the unit image sensor is received only by an area forming an electrode of the photodiode, and an area for forming another electrode of the photodiode and an area for forming two electrodes of the storage diode are separated from each other by a well, thereby compensating light leakage.
Claims22
A light leakage compensating unit image sensor in a back side illumination method comprising:
- a photodiode and a storage diode,
- wherein light input to a back side of the unit image sensor is received only by an area forming an electrode of the photodiode, and
- an area for forming another electrode of the photodiode and an area for forming two electrodes of the storage diode are separated from each other by a well, thereby compensating light leakage.
An image sensor array having a plurality of lines, the image sensor array comprising:
- a first image sensor array having a plurality of first image sensor circuits arranged in two dimensions;
- a frame optical black (FOB) image sensor array including a plurality of FOB image sensor circuits configured to compensate for a dark level of a frame, the FOB image sensor array on at least one of a first portion and a second portion of the first image sensor array;
- a line optical black (LOB) image sensor array including a plurality of LOB image sensor circuits configured to compensate for a dark level for each line, the LOB image sensor array arranged at on at least one of a first side and a second side of the first image sensor array;
- and
- a light leakage compensating image sensor array including a plurality of light leakage compensating image sensor circuits, the light leakage compensating image sensor array between the first image sensor array and the LOB image sensor array.
An image sensor array having a plurality of lines, the image sensor array comprising:
- a first image sensor array having a plurality of first image sensor circuits arranged in two dimensions;
- a frame optical black (FOB) image sensor array including a plurality of FOB image sensor circuits configured to compensate for a dark level of a frame, the FOB image sensor array arranged at on at least one of a first portion and a second portion of the first image sensor array;
- a line optical black (LOB) image sensor array including a plurality of LOB image sensor circuits configured to compensate for a dark level for each line, the LOB image sensor array arranged at on at least one of a first side and a second side of the first image sensor array;
- and
- a light leakage compensating image sensor array including a plurality of light leakage compensating image sensor circuits, the light leakage compensating image sensor array between the first image sensor array and the LOB image sensor array,
- wherein, the image sensor array is configured to convert electric charges stored in the storage diode into an electric signal, and prevent electric charges generated in a photodiode from being transferred to the storage diode.
A method of compensating for light leakage using an image sensor array having a first image sensor array having a plurality of image sensor circuits arranged in two dimensions, a frame optical black (FOB) image sensor array including a plurality of FOB image sensor circuits configured to compensate for a dark level for each frame, of the FOB image sensor array is on at least one of a first portion and a second portion of the first image sensor array, a line optical black (LOB) image sensor array including a plurality of LOB image sensor circuits configured to compensate for a dark level for each line, the LOB image sensor array arranged at on at least one of a first side and a second side of the first image sensor array, and a light leakage compensating image sensor array including a plurality of light leakage compensating image sensor circuits, the light leakage compensating image sensor array between the first image sensor array and the LOB image sensor array, the method comprising:
- detecting an image signal from the first image sensor array;
- converting the image signal into an electric signal;
- compensating for a dark level of a photodiode of the first image sensor array using the LOB image sensor array and the FOB image sensor array;
- and
- compensating for a light leakage current remaining in a storage diode of the first image sensor array by using the light leakage compensating image sensor array and the LOB image sensor array.
An image sensor array comprising:
- a first image sensor array including a plurality of first image sensors, the first image sensors configured to receive light and convert the received light into an electric charge, the first image sensors including,
- a storage node configured to receive the electric charge, and
- a well and a barrier configured to block electric charges from being input to the storage node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.